


Scale Day

by JenKing



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Celebrations, Dancing, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-27 11:38:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10808283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenKing/pseuds/JenKing
Summary: A young Au Ra squealed loudly as she ran through her village.  Her tiny legs pumped furiously as she rushed towards her father.  Thankfully he saw her coming so he was able to scoop her up before she crashed headfirst into his leg.  With a loud rumbling laugh, the man swung his daughter around before settling her on his hip."What it is that has gotten you into a such a frenzy little one?""My scale came off!"The little girl shrieked and shoved a tiny white scale into her father's face.  The man craned his head back a bit to keep from going cross-eyed.  His lips turned up into a happy grin as he examined the scale closely.  The father looked his daughter over closely and noticed a few other spots where her scales were starting to slip free."Well, would you look at that!  My baby is growing up!""Papa!  I'm not a baby!""Oh really now.  Well, I guess I can tell mom that you are too grown up for sweet choaco cream and sweet cakes."The older Au Ra grinned as his child squealed and protested loudly that she was still a child.  He cuddled his child close which elicited a stream of giggles from the little one."Lets go tell your mother about your upcoming Scale Day celebration."





	Scale Day

The warrior of light was in a rather sticky situation. Surprisingly, her life wasn't in danger and there was no primal to face off with in moral combat. She was faced with a situation that she had no idea how to handle. Social interaction. She kept close to her post by Minfilia's desk and watched as the other Scions interacted. Y'shtola and Thancred were going at it, taunting insults hidden behind flowery dialect and large words. Papalymo's head was about to turn permanently red because of the monk who was currently massaging his shoulders. The lalafell had complained about neck and shoulder pains so Yda had made it her personal mission to ease his pain. The woman was completely oblivious to how red Papalymo was turning and how much he really was enjoying her massage. Those two were meant to be together no matter how much they denied it. After a couple of attempts to draw the warrior of light into the conversation, Minfilia relented and began to discuss plans with Urianger and Alphinaud. It wasn't that she didn't want to converse with the other Scions, she concluded, it was more of that she didn't know how to. She had always been a quiet as a child and interacting with people in her tribe had been easy. The tribe was one large family so everyone knew each other. She nervously scanned over each person in the room as her tail smacked against the leg of the wooden desk. A small clang drew her attention away from the room and to the floor. Lying on the ground was a small white scale, which had previously been on the tip of her tail. Picking up the scale, a grin spread over the warrior's face. She had just found her key to making new friends.

* * *

 

 

The entire organization of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn had been kicked out of their own headquarters. Without much explanation, their newest member had forced everyone outside with the exception of Tataru. No one had protested, at least not loudly because no one wanted to upset the woman capable of killing Primals. Urianger was the most upset about the displacement because he had been working on one of his many projects. The Scions had been lounging around the courtyard for a couple hours when Tataru poked her head out through the front doors.

 

"Ok, we're ready now!"  
Speculative glances were shared between the Scions as they walked back inside. Tataru lead the group to the main gathering room and knocked on the door.

"Ready Jen?"

"Yeah." The muffled voice inside confirmed before Tataru pushed the door open.

"Oh wow.", Yda, who was toward the front of the crowd, cooed as she stepped into the room.

The tables in the room had been pushed together so that everyone could eat together. Tataru had whipped out a large amount of candles of their stock and had placed them strategically around the room. The candles cast a warm but bright glow through the room. Small pinpoints of light seemed to float through the room thanks to the candlelight bouncing off of the decorations along the ceiling.

 

"You two put all this up in two hours?", Y'shtola looked over all the decorations in the room.

"Yeah but we had some help.", The warrior of light adjusted one last decoration, as she spoke, before climbing down off of a chair. She gestured to the Ifrit egi who was helping arrange dishes on the largest table. Maybe she wasn't supposed to use her powers to summon a powerful egi to help set up for a party but she needed the help. And mini Ifrit hadn't really complained about the matter.

"Ok, while this is very interesting, I'm not still sure what's going on..." Papalymo frowned, which caused small dimples to form between his brows.

"Oh yeah!" The warrior of light jogged over to the other Scions and dug through the pockets of her shorts. "Happy Scale Day!"

Taking care not to hit anyone, Jen threw two handfuls of old white scales in the air. Tataru pulled out an old confetti popper and showered as many Scions as she could with brightly colored paper.

"Jen got a new set. They look great!"

The warrior of light beamed from the praise and unconsciously preened to show off her new, white scales. The outfit she had was worn for the purpose to show off the scales that covered her side and crawled up her spine. The short sleeves also showed off the scales along her arms, neck, and collarbone.

"She sheds a lot so we used most of the old scales for decorations.", Tataru gestured to the ceiling as she spoke. The old scales had been strung up on string and tied to the ceiling. The Scions gaped at their Au Ra friend and tried to subtly look her over. How could that many scales come from one tiny woman?

"Come on, we got to eat before it gets cold."

 

The Scions didn't get to demand an explanation before the two overly excited women pushed them to the spread of food they managed to whip together. The warrior of light dutifully explained every dish to her companions before they tried it. There was Banh la, a variety of ground meats wrapped in lettuce, plums stuffed with herbs and boiled in sugar water, corn sweet cakes stacked in a little tower, hot peppers stuffed with rice stuffing and chopped up crayfish, dodo steaks on beds of wild rice, a large basket of fire flakes(what up Avatar reference!) and a large plum cake sat in the middle of the table.

  
As the Scions quickly discovered, Au Ra favored spicy food over all else. The 12 praise Tataru for keeping Jen from making the food to spicy. The Scions still found the Au Ra mild still packed a punch so the water jugs were passed around the tables several times.

 

* * *

 

"So Jenivere, you mind explaining this holiday in more detail?" Yda had quickly developed an addiction to the fire flakes and had quite a bit piled on her plate. Jen grinned at the monk and nodded. A small wave of nerves hit her as the entirety of the Scions stopped their conversations and focused in on her. Taking a deep breath and rolling back her shoulders, the Warrior began to explain the odd little celebration.

  
"It's not really a holiday but more of a celebration of life. Now Scale day isn't like a birthday because you can start shedding at any time. It all depends on who you are and what kind of life you lead. Young children tend to shed less often until they hit puberty. The more active you are and if you have a healthy diet you will shed less often because your scales are healthy and not worn out. Stress can also cause one to shed their scales rather quickly. And for why I shed so many scales is because there are layers of scales that I have. I'm not really sure but my Mama always believed it was because of our dragon heritage."

 

Taking a small swig from her water glass, Jen caught her breathe before returning to the story.  
"As I said, Scale day is a celebration of life. It was seen as an accomplishment to live to your next scale day. As the years have passed, Au Ra tribes have grown stronger and more stable but they were not always that way. It would be considered a miracle if a child lived to adulthood and mated with another. With tribes fighting each other and the brutal diseases getting passed around, Au Ra numbers were dropping. This crisis is what gave birth to the tradition of Scale Day. The lives of my tribe members are no longer at risk like they once were. Tribal conflicts are less common and because many tribes began to work together, a lot of old sicknesses have been treated. In order to honor our ancestors who went through such a struggle, Scale Day is still celebrated. Now it is more of an excuse for parents to parade around their child and for the entire village to get drunk."

 

"Sounds like my kind of holiday."  
The Warrior of Light laughed loudly at Thancred's comment, her hands slapping against the tabletop.  
"W-well yes, I thought you might enjoy that part. The adults would drink a special brew while the children drank watered down versions. The village would gather in a large tent which kind of served as a meeting hall and party all night long. There was of course singing and dancing. I remember dancing at one of my cousin's Scale Days until my feet had blisters."

 

"Well I don't think we can perform any Au Ra dances, we can show you how we dance in Eorzea.", Minfilia spoke softly with a broad smile on her face. At the mention of dancing the Scions were sent into a frenzy. The ones who could play were sent off to fetch their instruments while everyone else helped to move the tables to create a dance floor.

  
"Now would be a great time to bring out the brew, my scaly friend," Thancred spoke in low, conspiratorial tones which caused the Au Ra the chuckle.

"Alright alright, I will. Keep your britches on."

  
Laughing again at Thancred's affronted gasp, Jen grabbed the large pitchers that she had been hiding from view. She served the Hyur first before moving onto everyone else. Once everyone had a mug full of the brew, she made a toast with the help of Minfilia. A large smirk slipped over her face as the Scions took the first sip of the drink. The brew was a mix of choaco cream that had been cooked with a strong wine. She could still remember when her mother taught her how to make it. The brew was easy to make and didn't take much time. The brew was often served at parties so it needed to be easy to make large quantities of it in order to whet the tongues of hundreds of Au Ra.

 

"I could drink this forever." The usually serious Papalymo, nuzzled his mug affectionately as he spoke.

"If you give that mug one more hug Pap, I might begin to feel rather jealous.", Papalymo promptly began to choke on the mouthful of drink as Yda spoke up. She innocently took a sip of her own drink as the lalafell continued to cough. For a moment, Jen could have sworn that she saw Yda smirk over the rim of her glass but it must have been a trick of the light. Her attention was dragged away from the couple as she was dragged to the dance floor by an overexcited Minfilia. The Warrior of Light was lead through several dances by the young Archon. Music flowed through the room as she was passed from partner to partner. It was when she was dancing with Y'shtola did the miquo'te ask for her to perform a dance that she knew. Someone heard what Y'shtola, most likely Thancred, and word spread through the crowd like a wildfire. Before the warrior of light could protest, she was picked up and set down atop the sturdiest table in the room. She gave the room an annoyed glare but there was no true heat behind it. Listening to the excited demands and cheers from the crowd, she gave in with a sigh. The impromptu band fell silent and allowed to take full center stage.

  
The words to an old song from her childhood slipped from her lips before she could stop them. Ignoring her apprehension, she left the song flow through her as she was transported back to time where her biggest worry was whether or not her Papa would let her go hunting with him. Her feet moved to a beat only she heard and her body moved along to the silent tune. The song was in her tribe's tongue so the lyrics came out with a rough edge because of the pronunciation of the words. Her tail sung along with her hips, the tip of her tail smacking the table to keep a steady beat. All too soon the song was over and she was standing breathless on top of a table. Before Jen could come down off of her high, she was swept off of the table by her fellow Scions as was gifted with hugs and loud praise.

 

The party lasted long into the night and ended just as the morning hours were beginning. Most of the Scions decided to crash in the Walking sands rather than trying to get home at such a late hour. The warrior of light collapsed tiredly next to Y'shtola and Yda. The women scooted over on their blanket to make room for her. Her feet ached from all the dancing and her stomach bulged from all the food she consumed. But she was happy. She may be yalms away from her birthplace but she had found a family to take care of and that would take care of her. This had been the best Scale day that she had enjoyed in years.

 


End file.
